Sacred Songs
Date:
January 9, 2023
Sacred Songs
Sacred Songs
by Nona Giunashvili, Mariam Bitsadze
17/07 Productions
1st feature
Logline
In Georgia’s remote Pankisi Valley, a group of Muslim women fights to preserve their sacred Sufi songs as rising radicalism threatens their traditions.
Synopsis
In the remote Pankisi Valley of Georgia, a small Muslim community carries the echoes of an ancient tradition. Sacred Sufi songs sung by Chechen Kist women. Raisa Margoshvili is the last woman who performs these powerful religious chants in the mosque. For decades, she has preserved these songs, believing that bringing them to the stage is a way of serving Allah and keeping their spiritual legacy alive. But times are changing, and with no younger women willing to continue the tradition, the songs are at risk of fading forever.
The film moves between two worlds: the grand concert halls of Europe, where these women perform, and the quiet, rugged landscapes of Pankisi, where daily life is dictated by tradition. Men fill the streets, preparing for prayer at the mosque, while the women work: making cheese, tending to animals, repairing homes. Amidst this, Raisa and her sister Taisa, try to hold onto their heritage, even as younger generations, like Taisa’s daughter Markha, turn toward stricter interpretations of Islam. Markha, once a singer, has now given up music entirely. As the film unfolds, it captures the last moments of a tradition on the edge of extinction. The women’s voices still fill concert halls, but back home, doors are closing, concert spaces are locked, radical ideas are spreading, and the once vibrant musical culture is becoming a memory. In a final journey, the camera returns to Pankisi for one last recording, documenting what remains.
Director’s Profile
Nona Giunashvili, a film directing graduate from Georgian Technical University, has directed three short films and worked in various capacities with international film groups and TV channels. Since 2015, she’s been a cinema missionary for the Georgian National Film Center’s “Cinema at School” project in the Pankisi Valley. While working there she initiated her documentary project “Sacred Songs”.
Mariam Bitsadze
Mariam Bitsadze is a Georgian filmmaker currently pursuing a Master Cinéma ECAL–HEAD. Based between Geneva and Tbilisi, she works in both fiction and documentary, often exploring themes such as silence, memory, and displacement.
Before shifting fully to filmmaking, she worked in cultural diplomacy and project management.
She founded the independent production company 17/07 Productions in Georgia, and has collaborated with festivals, museums, and institutions across Europe. Her recent short film Sous la table was selected for the Locarno Film Festival’s Film Foundry section and received the Jacqueline Veuve Prize.
Mariam is a member of the European Film Academy, the Documentary Association of Europe (DAE), and the Documentary Association of Georgia (DOCA). In 2024, she was named among Forbes Georgia’s “30 Under 30” in the Arts category. She is currently developing her diploma fiction film Spring Fugue and a number of long-term documentary projects.
Company Profile
Founded by filmmaker Mariam Bitsadze, 17/07 Productions supports emerging Georgian voices and focuses on auteur-driven films exploring identity, womanhood, and post-Soviet transformation. The company produced The Feast (Grand Prix, Tbilisi IFF 2023) and is developing Sacred Songs and Spring Fugue, both supported by the British Council and Swiss cultural institutions. 17/07 has participated in EAVE CHANGE, Baltic Sea Docs, and CineDoc-Tbilisi, building strong connections between the Georgian and European film industries.